Strange Thoughts

Part Three-Chapter Three-Jay

Gray has just fought and won his first battle in the arena. Mimi's won five, Cody's won four, Aleya's won two, Callum's won six and Cheshire's won fifteen. Everything's going pretty well now, the people who were resisting before are now adjusting very well.

Cheshire and I are standing next to each other, ready to give an announcement. Cody's the first to come in the room. He winks at me when Cheshire looks away, waving to an incoming Callum, who sticks his redhead in the door.

"What's the announcement?" He says enthusiastically. He has a big smile on his face. He's really loving having friends. It's the first time I've seen him happy since his brother died.

Lion approaches the door. She's wearing a white lab coat. A thin woman his walking next to her, a spinning gear where her eye should be.

Aleya, Mimi, and Gray enter next, Cody seems unhappy that Aleya was talking to Gray. Those two seem to be enemies now.

Cheshire nods at me, giving me the cue to speak. "Gray and Cody, Dr. Claire and Lion have decided to perform an experiment on you. They want to watch and take notes on a fight where the motives come from purely rage, and we haven't met two people who hate each other more than you guys do. There is no getting out of this one, they need this information."

Cody looks Gray in the eye. "I'm up for it." Gray runs a hand through his blonde hair and says nothing, but the expression on his face speaks for him.

"I'm glad you guys are excited for the fight, let's go to the arena. We need this information as soon as we can get it. All of the fights here are based on wanting to move higher, nobody here really hates each other." Dr. Claire says. Gray is eyeing her with pure hatred.

I feel bad for Gray, I wish we hadn't let Dr. Claire come here. Dr. Claire is his biological mother, and his father didn't tell him until a little while ago.

We walk down to the arena, which is where we spend most of our time now. The huge gray room is deserted, there are no people in the arena or on the bleachers, which normally are filled.

"This is... Wow." I say. I have never seen the arena like this before, It's a lot bigger than it looks normally, it's so quiet and serene without all the action going on. Gray and Cody enter. They oppose each other, getting ready to fight.

"Wait," Cody says. "Aren't you going to do that thing to my choker?" Lion chuckles. "This has to be a fair fight. No weapons, no powers." Cody looks sick to his stomach. He's never fought without his powers before.

Lion takes Cody into one side of the arena, while Dr. Claire takes Gray to the other. Gray is trying to stay as far away as possible from Dr. Claire, but it doesn't seem to be working.

Cheshire, Aleya, Mimi, Callum, and I head up to sit on the bleachers. I sit down next to Cheshire, and almost jump up when I feel Cheshire squeezing my hand. "Poor Gray, I don't think he's ready for this."

I feel a surge of happiness go through me, a bit of Aubrey is poking out through her distorted personality.

I casually put my arm around Cheshire. She winces for a second, and I get ready to be humiliated, but then she relaxes. When Cheshire turns her head, Cody gives me a thumbs up from down in the arena. I roll my eyes, yet again.

Gray charges at Cody. Even without his powers, Cody still manages to do his classic sidestep, almost sending Gray to slam into the wall. Gray skids to a stop right on time.

Cody and Gray glare at each other, getting ready to make their next move. I look over at Aleya who is sitting on the other side of Cheshire. She looks nervous.

"C'mon Cody. Win this, or else I might start thinking that I should've picked Gray. I don't want to think that. I want to be right." she mumbles under her breath.

Neither Cheshire or I should've heard that, but we both have above average hearing because we are shifters. Cheshire gives me a wide eyed look.

"I feel like I'm in a soap opera." she whispers in my ear. I let out a light laugh, and she smiles back at me, but we both know that the situation is more serious than that.

Gray runs up and slaps Cody across his cheek. At the same time, Cody knees his groin, and they both stagger backwards.

They fly at each other, delivering many punches and kicks. Neither of them are holding back now, they are throwing every last bit of rage they have into this fight. Aleya is closing her eyes, and Dr. Claire is furiously scribbling notes.

I notice Callum inching closer to Mimi. I laugh, and point out what's happening to Cheshire. Mimi doesn't seem to notice, but she might have, I know she's pretty good at hiding her reactions.

"Who do you think is going to win?" Mimi asks. "I think Gray," Callum states. "He has more rage and grief inside of him than Cody, he has lost a lot." Mimi nods. "Callum, I think you're right." Callum basks in this little bit of pride that Mimi has given him.

She twirled a piece of her curly brown hair around her finger. "Cody looks hurt." I look out into the arena and see Cody backing away from Gray. He is clutching his arm. Gray walks towards Cody until Cody is cornered, his back is pressed against the wall.

Lion runs out in her lioness form, moving swiftly and elegantly. She shifts back into a human when she is between Gray and Cody. "The fight is over now," she announces, facing us. "Gray has won."

Aleya has a confused look on her face. "Just choose Cody, don't put Gray though more, he doesn't need that." Cheshire whispers to her. "Gray was never going to be the one for you, he was more like the classic boy next door, okay?"

Aleya nods, but she still seems confused. I guess she is going to have to make this decision herself, no matter how hard that is going to be.

Cheshire looks at me. "I can't do this anymore. Let's go... somewhere else." She leads me up a familiar long staircase.

We are soon sitting in a tower, surrounded by windows. You can see everywhere from this tower.

"This is where I used to come with Callum's brother." I say. A rush of emotional pain goes through me, remembering Callum's brother. "This is where we always used to hide, from all of this." I gesture to the people strolling around outside the tower. "For some reason, we needed to be surrounded by everything to be free." Cheshire nods.

"I think, I think I might want to be Aubrey again. I don't know for sure, I like being Cheshire, but parts of me miss being Aubrey." I put an arm around her. "You can be both." We sit down on the ground.

" Jay, can I--" Aubrey says. I nod. She leans in and kisses me. It's the best thing I've felt in a while. I stroke her hair, and we sit up in the tower for what feels like eternity.